Mastodon, ‘Jonah Hex Soundtrack’ — New EP

First, majestic prog-metallists Mastodon created the cinematic 'Crack the Skye' album, and now the Atlanta-based aristst are getting ready to release the actual movie soundtrack to 'Jonah Hex' with Oscar-nominated composer Mario Beltrami ('The Hurt Locker,' '3:10 to Yuma').

The movie opens in theaters on June 18, and on June 29 a six-track EP Warner Bros. Records will issue a six-track EP of music Mastodon wrote for the movie. Director Jimmy Hayward, a big fan of Mastodon's 2006 album 'Blood Mountain,' personally asked the group to write the score for 'Jonah Hex.'

"Jimmy called us out of the blue as a fan," bassist Troy Sanders said in an interview. "It was the most beautiful, authentic way to collaborate."

For their first film scoring experience, Mastodon recorded the tracks for 'Jonah Hex' by viewing movie footage and actually composing spontaneously in the studio. This method of experimental and immediate composition proved to be a daring, daunting and ultimately fun way of creating music together over a short period of time. The EP tracks include 'Death March,' 'Clayton Boys,' 'Indian Theme' and 'Train Assault.'

Based on a character from the comic book series from DC Comics, 'Jonah Hex' is an epic action adventure about one man's personal quest for redemption in a battle between good and evil. The star-studded film stars Academy Award nominee Josh Brolin ('Milk,' 'No Country For Old Men'), two-time Academy Award nominee John Malkovich ('In the Line of Fire,' 'Places in the Heart'), Megan Fox ('Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen'), Michael Fassbender ('Inglourious Basterds'), Will Arnett ('Blades of Glory') and Academy Award nominee Michael Shannon ('Revolutionary Road').